This is the fifth article in a series profiling the five men who will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on May 16, 2026.



CHESTNUT HILL -- In both music and the priesthood, Deacon Javier Padilla found a calling he wasn't expecting.

While in middle school, he wanted to join the band and play trombone like his friends. That instrument was already taken, so the band teacher handed him a clarinet. It turned out he had a gift for the instrument. He planned to become a professional musician until his senior year of high school, when he went on a pilgrimage to Krakow, Poland, for World Youth Day 2016. Witnessing Pope Francis preach, and being surrounded by young people and seminarians, made him feel the presence of Christ.

"These were young men that had, in a sense, left their previous life behind to see if God was calling them to this life," he recalled. "And for me, that was something that was really shocking. How could you be happy with that kind of life?"

He now knew that he was not alone in questioning his life's purpose.

"From there," he said, "I was catapulted into the seminary."

Deacon Padilla, 26, is in his final year of formation at Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill. He still plays clarinet for the youth group at Immaculate Conception Parish in Marlborough, where he serves as a transitional deacon. He and four other men will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston on May 16. The approaching date of his ordination makes him excited and nervous. Recently, when speaking to a young couple, he asked them, "Is this how it feels when you're about to be parents for the first time?"

"There's this excitement, but also this worry to do things right," he said.

Deacon Padilla was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1999. The son of Mexican immigrants, his father was a chef, and his mother was a social worker. She quit that job to focus on raising her children, especially Victoria, who was born with Down syndrome.

"This was a really pivotal moment for my family, because Victoria helped us to come together more as a family," Deacon Padilla said, "and being together was really something that would end up helping us a lot as a family."

The doctors told his mother to abort Victoria. She refused, and Victoria is now 14. The youngest of Deacon Padilla's five siblings, six-year-old Joshua, also has Down syndrome.

"They definitely made me appreciate life and see life as a gift of God," he said. "These siblings of mine, I also see that they're a blessing to my family, because the house is always lively."

Deacon Padilla was raised in the Neocatechumenal Way, which operates the global network of Redemptoris Mater seminaries. His fateful pilgrimage to World Youth Day was organized by the Way, which arranged for him to come to Boston for his priestly formation.

"I enjoy learning from other people, learning, seeing different cultures," he said, adding, "I think that's part of the missionary spirit of the seminary, is to be able to adapt anywhere, anywhere that we get sent most of the time."

As part of his formation, he spent a year doing missionary work in Samoa. He didn't know the language and found that the Church there "has its own music, its own tone."

"It was a completely new reality," he said.

About one-fifth of Samoa's population is Catholic. Some villages are predominantly Catholic, but they are few and far apart. Deacon Padilla would attend Mass at 5 a.m. His walk to the church was lit by an unpolluted sky full of stars.

"That was one of my favorite sights," he said.

There was a sense of family among the villagers. They made sure no one among them went hungry, including the missionaries. Deacon Padilla would be served so much food that he couldn't finish it.

"This is a reality, or a fact, that many times we don't see too much," he said. "You could say here, where it's this fear of a simple life, thinking that we wouldn't be happy. But if you will go to these places and you still see people enjoying life, it comes to contradict this notion that money is happiness."

Electricity and running water were unreliable. The missionaries' shower was a hose in the wall. If you wanted the water to be hot, your best bet was to shower in the middle of the day.

"I felt that in the end of that mission, God, first of all, was helping me to see that he loved me, that he could love me at anywhere, anytime," Deacon Padilla said, "and ultimately, if I felt loved by God. This would translate into me loving those around me for the sake of God."

His time in Samoa was "the most pivotal moment" in his formation. He took the lessons he learned there to Immaculate Conception, a large parish with English, Spanish, and Portuguese-speaking communities. He's learning Portuguese with the help of the parishioners.

"I think that plays even more into that wherever I get sent, with whoever I get sent, that ultimately, I'm called to love those people," he said.